The Super and the Natural

Put your nerd hat on.

Long suspected, but never proved, NASA scientists recently discovered that the Northern Lights get their energy from a stream of charged particles flowing like a current through twisted bundles of magnetic fields. The solar wind carrying these particles consists of the fourth state of matter - plasma. Plasma is simply an ionized gas - it has one or more free electrons, which are not bound to an atom or molecule.

Here's plasma at work:



Rather ghostlike, eh?

This is where it gets kooky and you have to suspend disbelief for a moment.

Many paranormal experts believe that ghosts manifest themselves through the use of a visible ionized gas, namely plasma.

In his paper, "Towards a theory of ghosts: plasma and psychospheres," Marinus Anthony van der Sluijs writes:

It would seem, then, that the psychosphere is an electromagnetic field or at least has an influence on electromagnetism. But how could an electromagnetic field possibly take on the visual appearance of a ghost? This question has to my knowledge never been answered in existing literature and it is at this point that I would like to introduce plasma as the possible key to decipherment of the ghost enigma.[15] A plasma is an ionised gas, which is by definition located in an electromagnetic field. The particles of the plasma rearrange themselves according to the field lines of the magnetic field, so that a plasma in a field with a sufficiently strong current becomes a visible manifestation of the magnetic field. The shape a plasma takes on, therefore, is the shape of the magnetic field. It is now generally acknowledged that plasma accounts for 99.9 % of the universe; well-known examples of plasma formations are stars, the sun, the auroras, lightning, and fire. I would now propose the following working hypothesis for a new theory of ghosts:

A ghost is a plasma formed when the percipient's electromagnetic field overlaps with the electromagnetic 'psychosphere' of the – often distant – agent and the combined field strength ionises the gas particles in the air.

This hypothesis could be tested by a detailed comparison of the morphology of ghosts with plasma physics. Although I am in no way a specialist in plasma physics, a general reading of literature would support the following observations:

• Ghosts often glow or are visible in the dark. This is a property of plasma.
• Ghosts run the gamut of sometimes being completely transparent and sometimes being completely opaque. Opacity is a function of the density of the plasma.
• Ghosts occasionally produce sound, but they often have difficulty with it, fail to say something, or merely utter an eerie cry. Plasmas, such as auroras and lightnings, are frequently accompanied by sound.
• Most ghosts are stationary, but some are engaged in some activity or move around. Plasmas could be either stationary or mobile.
• Ghosts are sometimes seen passing through walls, but often open doors like ordinary people. There would be no boundaries for moving plasmas, although it appears that the agent urges the plasma to react as a living person would do.
• Ghosts never leave physical objects behind. Plasmas are simply ionised gases.
• Many ghosts start off as a ball, then become a ring or a humanoid form.

Hogwash or science? You be the judge.


Northern Lights energy source discovered

Towards a theory of ghosts: plasma and psychospheres